NATO summit in The Hague shortened to align with Trump's communication style – The Times

The NATO summit, scheduled for 24-25 June in The Hague, will take place in an unusually brief format, with just one meeting lasting two and a half hours. The programme has been adapted to suit the communication style of US President Donald Trump, who openly dislikes lengthy diplomatic meetings.

Source: The Times

Details: The Times noted the NATO summit would be as short as possible and focused on one main topic – increasing defence spending by member countries. The meeting format has been significantly changed to align with Trump's communication style.

Instead of the traditional three sessions, NATO leaders will meet only once for two and a half hours. The summit communiqué will be no longer than one A4 page and contain just five paragraphs, compared to last year's Washington summit, which ended with a declaration of 44 paragraphs and over 5,000 words.

Quote from The Times: "Officials and diplomats organising the summit hope to learn from this weekend’s G7 summit when Trump left early before then firing social media broadsides at other world leaders."

Details: According to the summit programme, Trump will not hold the conventional joint press conference with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.

Rutte is determined to focus participants' attention on one key decision – raising defence spending to 5% of GDP. Under the agreed proposals, 3.5% is to be direct military expenditure, with the remaining 1.5% for defence-related budgets.

The Times said the decision on spending will be presented as a personal triumph for Trump after decades of US presidents lecturing European allies.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been invited to the summit but with a certain diplomatic downgrade to avoid awkward encounters with Trump which in the past have led to conflicts.

A source in the Office of the President confirmed Zelenskyy's intention to attend, but the final decision will be made just before the meeting.

The Times noted that the draft of the final document again names Russia as a "direct threat", though NATO will not repeat last year's wording on Ukraine’s "irreversible" path to Alliance membership

Background: 

• Zelenskyy has been invited to an official dinner for NATO leaders to be hosted by the King of the Netherlands on the evening of 24 June, the first day of the summit.
• However, according to media reports, some Ukrainian officials are questioning the advisability of Zelenskyy attending the NATO summit given Trump’s diminishing interest in resolving the war in Ukraine.
• This week also saw Trump leave the G7 summit early, missing a planned meeting with Zelenskyy.

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